90 miles from Cuba

On Friday, May 11 ,  I arrived at the Southernmost point in the continental USA at 1 pm , (Key West FL) on schedule.  I was scheduled to talk to the 8th and last Boys and Girls Club at 3:30.  As planned, I left Islamorada in the Keys that morning at 7:30 am (that was by far the latest sleep in of the 9 day journey), most  mornings we were up at about 4:30- 5:00 am to get packed up, get bikes ready and trek to the spot where we stopped riding the day before. One of the mistakes I made in planning this was booking hotels before i left, because i wasn't able to predict where we would be each day about 4pm when we would stop pedaling and get to the club we were scheduled to be at.  Because 3-4 of the days the stopping point and the hotel were 40-50 miles away, which meant driving 40-50 miles from the club to the hotel and then 40-50 miles back to where i would start for the day (where i had stopped the previous day). What that meant was 2 or 3 less hours of rest or sleep, which proved to be paramount during those 9 days. I really only felt like going to bed after cycling 10 or so hours a day, and usually did once we got something to eat.  The mornings were usually me on the road by myself, while Cody returned to the hotel to pack up his stuff ( and mine). Then he was doing something logistical ( talking to club directors, finding bike shops to service the bikes or repair flats, writing the blog which i was excited about doing but had no energy to do at the end of the day).  In the afternoons he would travel with me , being within 10 miles or so so i could get to food, drinks in the Tahoe)  The heat was scalding. The wind was from the South (not good) all except the last day where it blew slightly in my favor, and each day in south Florida we had TORRENTIAL RAINS.   On that last Friday i left for Key West and Cody went the opposite way to head to Miami Int Airport to pick up Meg, Keehln, and Julia and then the 4 of them would head toward Key west to meet me.  They caught up with me at mile marker 9 ( 9 miles from the end). We talked for 5 minutes and then with only 9 miles to go i lightened the load giving them my water bottles, my case with the camera cell phone and maps. They rode ahead 5 miles so they could take pictures of me getting to Key West with the cool signs , beach etc.  Within 30 seconds of when they left I GOT THE 6TH FLAT OF THE TRIP.  So without a phone , i threw the bike over my shoulder and walked 2-3 miles to a gas station where i called them to come bring me the second bike (UNBELIEVABLE). just glad they were sorta close and not in Miami.  As I rode up on the Southernmost point, the 4 in the Tahoe rolled down the windows and started cheering and soon after, another 30 or so started cheering with them. As i walked up to get my picture, at the tip end of the US, i passed the few people left cheering and watched an elderly Oriental woman who was still clapping turn and ask someone (who i presumed to be her son) "Why are we clapping?" We left,  got a crab cake sandwich, then spoke to the kids at the Southernmost Boys and Girls Club in the United Staes.
I will post another ( but final ) blog at the end of this week....reflecting
Dennis......encourage your friends to donate to this ride to help me meet my financial goals for these clubs

its dennis..not cody..dont be so disappointed

it was a lonely stretch of road somewhere between New Smyrna Beach, FL and Mims, FL.  It was pouring down rain and I got a call from my cousin Hank.  He was calling to line up dinner.  We had talked about this before I left on the trip in that once I got to Cocoa Beach, FL cody and I would go out to eat with the family after i talked to the kids.  He then informed me that Aunt Anne (his wife's mother) had died.  Aunt Anne was THE person in this world that thought Dennis Ross could do no wrong and was perfect (boy was she wrong).  But we were really close and i loved making her laugh.  I know the ladies in the beauty parlor in Port St. Lucie must think that Jesus Christ lived in Greenville, NC, but that woman really loved me.  It was an unconditional love.  She was a bit hard of hearing and once blurted out "Dennis took me to Hooters for lunch today and he tied balloons to my hair"….this was as her niece was walking down the isle to get married and everyone turned around to see who had said that…or the time i had the "Fireman" come over to my house and dance for her birthday.  she always thought he was a real fireman.  She made me swear not to tell her daughters until she died…(cause she really liked it)…i told Bonnie, her daughter the other night at supper.  She just shook her head and said thats just Dennis.  There are a million of them…but the last i will tell you about is the time i short sheeted hers and Uncle Earl's bed at the hotel during their both wedding anniversary.  She got up the next morning and at breakfast said she had to sleep with her feet out of the covers bc the bed was too short…I cried for 2 straight hours and more the next day while cycling and caught myself singing the hymn "When We all get to Heaven"…I miss you Aunt Anne but I know you would rather me finish the journey for the kids than to boo hoo at your funeral.  You have ALOT of time to think when you are cycling 10 or more hours a day and although i realize it more each day, its the people that you meet and how you treat them that defines you as a person..it becomes less and less about stuff.  Its like the old man who owned the general store in Conway that begged me to come in at 315pm even though he closed at 3.  he saw me sitting and asked me to come in and eat some of his boiled peanuts while i waited for Cody to return from fixing the Tahoe tire…He just wanted to talk.  But he was as interested in me as i was in him.  We mainly talked about doing good for those less fortunate as true as the Book of Matthew states…Or the good samaritan that took Cody to get the Tahoe fixed…he replied "what kind of person would i be if left you guys here with no way to repair the tire…he was from out of town and i know we inconvenienced him..(oh yeah its Thursday today and we had our 4th flat bike tire…To be continued….The computer froze on Dr. Ross and he never was able to finish this entry so I, Cody, will finish it really quick for him…so yes, another flat tire.  In fact, we hadn't fixed the tire on the other bike either, so when dr. ross go this flat tire, we didn't had a bike to ride bc they both had to be fixed.  Luckily, we got it fixed and were able to get to our destination in pretty good time.Well, just one more day to go.. Tomorrow we arrive in Key West and the trip will be complete.  We are excited to speak to the B&G cub in Key West and I am sure Dr. Ross is ready to get those final miles finished as well.  Well, wish us luck tomorrow.  

Dr. Ross  and  Cody

200 miles left!!!

So 1000 miles down, only 200 left to go.  I can't believe he's gone this far.  We left very early once again to begin our trek today.   Florida has been a very beautiful ride for the both of us driving on the A1A, which has included seeing enormous homes and beautiful ocean views.  The trouble for us has been making sure we are on the right roads.  A lot of the roads have several different names so it is difficult to keep up with it all.  So we definitely have had a few times where we have had no idea if we were on the right road and we just prayed that we were.  To be honest, today there weren't too many crazy things that happened.  We did get the opportunity to go to the B&G club in South Miami, which was fun.  They really enjoyed the presentation and afterward Dr. Ross called into the radio station in Greenville, NC and let some of the kids talk on the radio.  They were pretty excited about that.  When we pulled up they had about 150 kids there lined up on two sides with a banner going across the middle for Dr. Ross to ride through and break, which was pretty neat.  We are now in Miami Beach and ready to get these last and final miles in to complete this trip.  Miami Beach is a pretty cool place. Crazy at night I am sure, but it is still very beautiful here.  Oh yah, and when we got to our hotel for the night, we found that Dr. Ross' tire was flat once again (third time) and guess who will be replacing that tomorrow morning...:)  Luckily we have a second bike for the time being.  Anyways, not too much else that I can think of.  I am sure tomorrow will bring some pretty exciting stuff.  Sorry this blog was so short but I am about to fall asleep on this computer right now.  It is definitely time for bed for me.  I promise there will be more to come for tomorrow.  Not having anything crazy happen to us is a very rare occasion.  Talk to you guys soon.
Cody

crazy day

Cody here.....There is so much to talk about that I really don't know where to start.  I will try my best to condense this as best as I can.  I'll just start from the morning.  This morning we got up at 5:00 and head out so Dr. Ross could begin his ride at about 5:45.  I came back to our hotel afterwards to gather our stuff, get ready for the day, and eat breakfast.  I usually try to post on the blog or upload pictures as well, but right as I was getting out of the shower my cell phone rang (about 7:15 AM) and it was Dr. Ross.  He was stranded on the side of the road with yet another flat tire.  I told him to hold tight for a couple of hours and that I needed to go get some sun at the beach, no big deal...Im just kidding...so I got everything together as fast as I could and met up with him.  I then switched out his bike and then went to go look for a bike shop to fix the tire.  I got it fixed and then caught up with Dr. Ross again. There was a hole straight through the bad tire... Later that day I found a really cool bridge with a great view of the ocean, and so I went down to the side of the bridge to get a good side view photo of Dr. Ross going over the bridge.  It was the making of a professional discovery channel photography moment for me.  So i went down to a pull off near the water on the side view of the bridge, which was pretty far from it, and waited for him to finally cross the bridge.  I then saw his bright yellow shirt going across the bridge on his bike.   So i got the camera ready to shoot and shot some of the most amazing pictures of the trip.  Once he crossed the bridge, I ran to the car and drove as fast as I could to show him these incredible pictures......Only to drive up to a blonde woman in the exact some colored outfit as Dr. Ross...Ahhhhhhh! So I drove back to the bridge and there was Dr. Ross already over the bridge on his way down.  Unbelievable!!  I was so mad at myself at the time, but it is now pretty funny when I think back.  Sometime in the afternoon Dr. Ross and I met up as we usually do every 10-20 miles or so and he said that he was hot and was going to jump in the water.  So thats what he did.  He took off his shirt, walked onto the beach, and jumped into the water. We finally arrived to the B&G club in Palm Beach at around 4:30.  This was a very big club, as we had about 220 kids there to hear Dr. Ross speak to them.   The director's name is Carl Bolden.  He is such a nice man.  And get this, for those of you that follow football, he is the father of Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Anquan Bolden.  Carl himself also played in the NFL as well.  After talking with Carl for a while, Carl said "hey, hang on a second let me get Anquan on the phone and you can say hi to him really quick"  So he called him, put him on speaker, and then Dr. Ross talked to Anquan Bolden on the phone about his trip.  He told Dr. Ross how awesome it was that he was doing this for the B&G club and commended him for doing it.  On top of that, he promised to send either an autographed jersey and picture because of our efforts.  Then Carl Bolden went on to tell us that Devin Hester of the Chicago Bears, probably the fastest player in the NFL, grew up right next to the B&G club and that he coached Devin Hester from his childhood on up in multiple sports.  He then called Devin Hester and told him what we were doing and then Dr. Ross talked to him on the phone for a while.  He too said he wanted to send him an autograph and expressed his gratitude for what we were doing.  Dr. Ross then proceeded to challenge Devin Hester to a 50 yard dash in the parking lot, in which Devin Harris just laughed at him.  What a great opportunity it was to be able to get the word out to multiple people that are well known and have many avenues in which they can help Dr. Ross in getting more people on board with "Riding 4 a Reason".   Anyways, that was soo cool.  One minute we were on the road driving a car and riding a bike and then another minute we are on speaker phone with anquan bolden and devin hester.  pretty crazy!  There was so much more that happened but not enough time to type it all.  Either way, it was a great day and a great opportunity to meet new people and to meet so many wonderful kids that have so much promise.  Well, it is now time to go to bed.  We will be in touch!
Cody

Day 6

So basically I think I have been given the responsibility of "senior blogger", as Dr. Ross is sound asleep right now and I am still awake getting things ready for the day tomorrow.  Today was another great day!  The drive along the Florida coast is awesome!  This morning Dr. Ross asked me to get the tire on his bike checked because the pressure wasn't right.  So he went ahead and left on his other bike and I went to the bike shop to see what the problem was, knowing I would have to catch up to him later and find him somewhere down the road.  Come to find out, there was a very tiny piece of glass stuck in the tire, which was slowly seeping air out. The guy at the bike shop said we are lucky we caught it early because it could've gotten worse over time and gone flat while he was riding which could be dangerous.  So I left the bike shop and went on my merry way to find him.  I drove for a about an hour or so and then received a call from Dr. Ross telling me that he went 8 miles down the wrong road.  Ok, so going the wrong direction 8 miles like in a car is pretty annoying, but going 8 miles out of the way on a bike??? not very fun...Luckily he was at least going in a southern direction.  So I went and found him (which was in the middle of nowhere by the way) and put him back where he needed to be. In all, he rode a total of 120 miles today.  Oh and did I mention.....3 hours of riding were in a rainstorm.  That man is crazy!! He refused to stop riding. One cool thing that happened later that day is I was riding along the road when I saw a nice scenic area of the beach so I got out to take pictures.  So I'm focusing in on the ocean and the sky taking pictures, and in the lens I see something pop up out of the water....It was a pod of about 8 to 10 dolphins!  I thought it was pretty crazy that I picked that little section of beach and by accident ran into some dolphins, so hopefully those pictures turned out good.  Also, there are a lot of huge beautiful homes along the coast so I decided to pull over and snap a picture of one. I decide pull over and at this house there is a lady outside pulling weeds or something in the front yard.  I roll the window down and get the camera ready out the window, and this lady starts yelling at me not to take any pictures of her house.  But....I had already snapped like 4 so I said "OK" :)  and then pulled away with 4 amazing pictures of the house..haha..you can check out the picture gallery on the website and find a picture with the lady getting ready to come yell at me.  At about 4 pm we went to the B&G club in Mims, FL.   This was such an amazing club to go visit.  We were in the projects of this particular city, but were surrounded by a beautiful group of boys and girls.  I know that Dr. Ross and I both felt very connected to this group, as they listened intently to his words about the fact that they can do anything and be anything that they want to be as long as they study hard and work hard.  This was a group of less fortunate children and I was grateful to be able to spend the time with them that we did.  This was really a great reminder of the purpose we are doing this trip.  If we can touch or change the life of just one individual, all of the hard work will be well worth it.  I know that this is definitely how Dr. Ross feels.  For dinner we met with Dr. Ross' cousin Bonnie and her family who live in the Cocoa Beach area.  It was great to meet them and talk with them.  Cocoa Beach is where we are stopped at for the night.  Well, off to bed.  Talk to guys tomorrow!
Cody

Florida!!!!!

It is Cody yet again.  Dr. Ross has been exhausted after these rides and has been basically going straight to bed upon arrival at our stops.  Yesterday he rode an incredible 150 MILES!!!!  He just kept going and going and going....We crossed the Florida border finally and are past the halfway mark for the trip.  We were pretty excited about that.  Dr. Ross' knee has been bothering him a little here and there but we just make sure he ices it when he stops for a break every now and again and it seems to be working pretty good.  We made our pit stop in St. Augustine, Florida and are now on our way down the coast on the A1A highway.  It has been a beautiful scenic route being right near the ocean on the A1A.  We started again at 4:30 AM and we finished at about 7:15 PM or so last night.  We are excited about meeting with the Boys and Girls club in Coco Beach, Florida and are scheduled to see them at 4 PM today.  You have no idea how badly I just want to pull over and jump into the ocean.  It is sitting right there just calling my name.  I will at some point, this I know.... I know Dr. Ross feels the same way considering I am in an air conditioned car and he is out there in the Sahara Desert heat.  I told him when we get to Key West that he should just ride his bike straight into the ocean.   But he declined, telling me that the salt water is bad for the bike.   But hey, it was worth the try.  Well I am off and running to our next meet up point.   One of us will be sure to blog yet again tonight or tomorrow morning.  Yesterday was probably the least craziest day.  We put in a lot of miles and everything went pretty smoothe.  We are right on schedule to where we wanted to be for the trip so far...Today should make for an interesting day with a lot to talk about when we blog next......Anyways, we will be back soon.......see ya!

Cody

Day 3

Hello everyone.  This is Cody Anderson again.  Dr. Ross was too tired last night to blog (as was I), so he asked me to give an update on how day 3 went yesterday.  We actually woke up at 4:30 AM to in order to be gone by 4:45 to get to our drop off point for Dr. Ross.  He started riding around 5:45 AM.  In the end, we ended up at our hotel at around 8:15 or so last night, so it was definitely a long day.  There were quite a few highlights from the day.  We went to the B&G club in Savannah, GA which was great!  Even though, they were delayed about an hour and a half or so, we still met some great people and got to spend some time with the kids.  We played basketball with them for a while.  Dr. Ross continued to tell me that he could "eat me up" on the basketball court.  Though, he never did agree to a 1 on 1 matchup.  I will say that he has pretty nice jump shot though.  Anyways, back to the kids....The kids loved him and were grateful to have him there and enjoyed the time spent with him.  In fact, afterwards they asked if they could watch Dr. Ross as he rode his bike across probably the biggest and steepest bridge I've ever seen.  So we put them on a bus and they followed behind Dr. Ross all the way across the enormous bridge.  Needless to say, Dr. Ross was exhausted when he got to the other side.  Apparently, the kids were a little upset at first, because they thought they were going to ride across with him, and asked where their bikes were.  We got a laugh out of that.  One of the directors (JoJo Jones) was a really great guy and, we found out later, that he broke Walter Payton's NCAA football record for most touchdowns ever a few years back.  Pretty impressive!  Also, later that day, I stopped off the road to take pictures of this swampy area.  I started talking with a group of people there, and come to find out they were from Kinston, NC.  When I told them that we were from Greenville they shouted out loud, all 6 of them, for about 10 seconds straight.  I guess you could say they were excited....  Dr. Ross had a great ride yesterday.  He rode about 130 miles i believe, which is insane considering we had a bout a 4 hour layoff in total during our time spent on behalf of the B&G club.  He is basically a machine.  Not to mention, he can eat cinnabuns and milkshakes from McDonalds and still continue riding like he just ate a nice carb-filled plate of spaghetti.  I kid you not, at around 6:15 PM he told me to have 2 large chocolate milkshakes waiting for him upon his arrival at his next stop.  Not a joke, haha.... Anyways, that is all I can think of for now.  We got up at 4:45 this morning and are back at it again.  I'm sure Dr. Ross will give some updates tonight, so stay tuned!